Tag: Arctic Winter Cruise

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We docked at a little after 1400 yesterday. The end of a cruise is always sad but at the same time welcome. Cruises are exhausting, so much energy is expended taking advantage of every available opportunity and sample. Now we must re-enter the real world. There […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 I didn’t quite expect the Bering Sea to be quite this nasty in December. Bad yes, but perhaps a few hours to sneak in a few samples before roaring in again with another storm. No such luck, the storms are just rolling in like freight trains. […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 Another day, another storm. The Bering Sea is relentless! We managed to sneak in three stations yesterday afternoon and early this morning but then the weather deteriorated and our sampling operations were shut down again. This time we were out in the open, far from the […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We spent yesterday sheltered in the ice, at a place called “refuge”. We moved here two nights ago to enjoy the calm afforded by the sea ice as the latest Bering Sea storm raged over us. Today the weather has moderated and we sampled across a […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We’re racing a storm across the Bering Sea, going 15 knots between stations to try to get as many done as possible before the storm catches us from behind. Fifteen knots feels really fast, Healy shudders a little bit as she goes. The wake is white […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 The Bering Sea is gnashing its teeth and flailing around. Clearly it took offense at our attempts to wrest the secrets of plankton overwintering from its icy depths. We have been unable to work for a day and a half now because of bad weather. Two […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We have now bid farewell to the Chukchi Sea and are in the northern Bering, working north of Saint Lawrence Island. Most fantastically, the ice is coming with us! Winds have been from the north, bringing cold air south and also blowing the ice south so […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are heading south towards Bering Strait and the Bering Sea beyond. As we go, we are moving through young ice, with smallish pancakes ahead of the ship. The ice lamps illuminate the pancakes. The ship rumbles as she plows through the loose pancakes, with a […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are moving further south. As we go, the ice is filling the Chukchi Sea, filling that sea with us still in it. A few days ago, there was sea ice only in the northern part and along the coast. Now, as we go south, the […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 There is a sense of anticipation in the air. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we will be observing it, even though we are at sea in the Arctic. As luck would have it, we have a couple of long transits between stations to accomplish tonight and tomorrow […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are in the thick of winter now. We have reached our furthest northern point, at 72 27.18 N, over the slope-basin in about 2000 m of water. As we moved north, the ice became thicker and more resilient. Sometimes moving is easy, sometimes we claw […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 Today the sun did not rise. We have come so far north that we have reached a latitude where the sun did not come above the horizon on this winter day, where night lasted for 24 hours. We were treated instead to a few hours […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are now, finally, in ice. The ship is shuddering along, not breaking ice but rather pushing floes of pancake ice aside. When occasionally we break into a lead of open water, the ship glides unfettered, seemingly not moving because there is no irregular bumping and […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 This morning at around 1030 local time we passed through Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea. As we go, the air becomes colder, the water becomes colder, the sea is gray, and the winds are howling at 30 knots from the NE. We are […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We have decided to make a run for it. After remaining south of the Aleutians in the Gulf of Alaska for an extra day or so in order to avoid the huge Bering Sea storm, we are making a strike to get through the Bering Sea […]

By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 The sun was shining brightly in Seward as we slipped our lines free from the dock and moved gently away. The winter cruise was starting! It was a long time in coming, with many ups and downs as the schedule changed. But today, we finally […]